Everyone called it a useless death trap, and the railroad executives thought they were scamming him. Instead, Isaiah and his crew cleared that impenetrable swamp entirely by hand.
Out of the mud, they built Mound Bayou a fully independent Black boomtown. They didn’t ask for a seat at the table; they built their own.
They established their own banks, built a hospital, and created an economy so powerful that Teddy Roosevelt called it the ‘Jewel of the Delta.’ #mountbayou #blackhistory